


somewhere, a place for us

by Bara_no_Uta



Series: Finding Meaning in [E]ternity [1]
Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Post-Game(s), Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:20:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26070097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bara_no_Uta/pseuds/Bara_no_Uta
Summary: “Pod, commence rebooting of A2.”Pod 042 floated closer and began running checks to confirm that A2 was ready to be rebooted. “Unit A2’s vital signs confirmed. Memory storage, thought circuits, auxiliary motor functions, all confirmed to have been restarted. Entering reboot sequence.”It was a few seconds before A2 opened her eyes. When they fell upon 2B, there was a moment of alarm before 2B quickly assured her,“It’s okay, I’m not here to hurt you.” After being hunted by YoRHa units, she couldn’t blame A2 for having that as her instinctive reaction.Memories slowly falling back into place, A2 relaxed again. “You’re alive,” she said with a small smile. Looking around the room for 9S, she soon saw him a few paces back. “You’re both alive.” Her relief was almost palpable."All three of us are alive,” 2B answered.-Thanks to their pods, the trio wakes up some days after the tower has fallen. With no Commander to tell 2B and 9S what to do and no humans to fight for, and A2 no longer having to be alone, perhaps the three of them can use this as a new beginning.
Relationships: 2B/A2 (NieR: Automata)
Series: Finding Meaning in [E]ternity [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1892593
Kudos: 34





	somewhere, a place for us

**Author's Note:**

> The reboot process was borrowed directly from the audio drama "Farewell," but aside from that differs dramatically. My thought is that "Farewell" is what happens if ending E is received from ending D (9S ending), but that if it was ending C (A2 ending), because A2 saved him, he wakes up just fine. And with that, I'm theorizing that because the virus disappeared shortly after the tower's collapse, A2 wasn't infected long enough for any of her data to be corrupted beyond repair.

“Unit 2B’s vital signs confirmed. Memory storage, thought circuits, auxiliary motor functions, all confirmed to have been restarted. Entering reboot sequence.”

2B stirred, sitting up. She felt groggy and lightheaded, as though it was taking her unusually long to come out of sleep mode. She still felt a bit confused, her memories not yet caught up to her last backup. “Ugh…”

“Good morning, 2B.”

The memories came back to her. She was _alive_. She hadn’t expected this. Experimentally, she furled and unfurled her hands. No matter how she looked at it… she had been brought back somehow. But _how_? “I…”

“Report: Unit 2B was killed by Unit A2 approximately 1718 hours ago.”

Her algorithm was able to make quick work of the calculation. “1718 hours ago… so… 72 days, then.” So much could happen in 72 days. She wondered what events she had missed during her time offline.

“Following that, us tactical support units reconstructed your parts. The virus previously inside you deactivated along with the tower’s collapse, and remains in suspension.”

“Tower…? What happened…?” She looked around her, her eyes quickly settling on 9S. He was sitting up too, beaming at her in anticipation and relief. “9S!”

As though taking that as permission, he dove forward to hug her tightly. “2B! 2B!” He sounded on the verge of tears.

With a fond smile, she reciprocated his hug. “I’m here… I’m back, 9S.” He had been waiting for 72 days for her to wake up, she assumed, so it was no wonder he was so relieved. Had he been all by himself for that time, aside from his pod? She had hoped A2 would keep him company, but the other android was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m so glad…” he sobbed into her shoulder. Right now he didn’t care about appearances. The only thing he cared about was that 2B was _alive_.

She was too. When she entrusted her memories and mission to A2, she had truly thought it was the end for her. It bothered her if A2 hadn’t followed through, although when she thought about it now, she couldn’t entirely blame her if that were the case. For some reason, she had felt that she could trust A2, but there was no logical reason for that. After all, the only other time they had met was in the Forest Kingdom, when 2B had tried to kill her…

Now that 2B was alive again, she didn’t need to rely on A2 anymore. Still, she found herself wondering what had happened in her absence. The pod had said something about a tower? She chose to wait for now, letting 9S calm down first. She could only imagine how he must have felt, not knowing if she would wake up…

It occurred to her then that they were _free_. She would never again be ordered to kill him. No YoRHa soldier would ever be tasked with killing a comrade, in fact. It was a bittersweet thought since the reason was that the others were all dead, but right now, she couldn’t process that fully.

She would never have to kill 9S again… right? The Council of Humanity would still exist, and perhaps they would still want to give them orders through the pods. But as she understood it, the reason she was ordered to kill 9S was due to accessing confidential YoRHa information. If YoRHa no longer existed, then…

When 9S pulled away, the two smiled at one another, until 2B turned serious. “What did I miss while I was offline?”

His expression immediately morphed into rage. “You mean after A2 murdered you?”

That took her aback. “What?” Searching through her memory banks, she remembered seeing 9S just after being impaled by her own sword. Understanding dawned on her. She hadn’t really thought about how he would see the situation, but based on his expression, she realized that he hadn’t known just how bad her condition had become at the time. Though, shouldn’t A2 have corrected that misunderstanding? “9S, the logic virus was destroying me from the inside out. It was too late for me. I entrusted her with my memories and _asked_ her to end my suffering.”

“But none of us knew that you would be able to come back! How could she just give up hope on you?”

Compassion swelled in her chest. It touched her to know that just as desperately as she never wanted to lose him, he felt the same. Still, she didn’t want him to hold this against A2. “I could barely move my body. I would have had perhaps a few more minutes of excruciating pain, and then I would have been gone anyway. …Besides, if she hadn’t killed me, it’s possible the virus would have corrupted my data to the point that I wouldn’t have been able to come back like this.”

That took him by surprise, his anger fading. He still couldn’t bring himself to like her though – at least not yet. The sight of her impaling 2B with 2B’s own sword was just too unbearable.

“What were the pods talking about, some sort of tower…?”

He nodded, solemn again. “The machines built a tower… an ark to send their data to another planet. I ran into A2 there, and… we fought. I was infected with the virus… she hacked me and I passed out… and then the pods woke me up, just like you.”

Wait, A2 fought him? What happened to her request for A2 to look after him? …No, with how angry he was, she wouldn’t be surprised if it had simply been self-defense, so she couldn’t entirely blame her for that. 2B looked at Pod 042. “What happened after 9S passed out?”

“9S had endured severe corruption due to the logic virus. Despite warnings regarding the safety of this decision, A2 transferred the infection to her own data to ensure the survival of 9S. She then deleted the data from the ark, leading the virus to be eliminated.”

“She… saved me?” 9S asked in disbelief. He had tried to kill her, so why in the world would she save him?

That made 2B feel better, though, recognizing that A2 really had followed through on what she had asked of her. Wait, if A2 had been infected with the virus, but the virus was eliminated… that meant she was okay, right? “Pod, where is A2 now?”

“A2 has not yet been rebooted. Would you like to do so?”

“Yes!” Why did she feel so desperate to see her again? Perhaps it was simply a matter of gratitude. After all, A2 had not only saved her, but she had respected her final wishes enough to be willing to sacrifice herself… well, it was likely there was more to it than that, but without a doubt, it was worthy of thanks.

Pods 042 and 153 led the two to the building where A2 could be found, propped dramatically in the windowsill. It suited her, 2B couldn’t help but to think, almost taken aback by the beauty of A2’s resting face in the sunlight.

The group ran inside. Fearing that A2 might fall if she tried to sit up too quickly, 2B lifted her in a princess carry and moved her to the floor, kneeling down beside her. Some of A2’s hair went into her face in the process, and 2B brushed it out of the way so that she wouldn’t wake up with hair in her mouth or obstructing her vision.

9S shifted. Why did he feel like he was intruding on an unexpectedly private moment between the two of them…?

“Pod, commence rebooting of A2.”

Pod 042 floated closer and began running checks to confirm that A2 was ready to be rebooted. “Unit A2’s vital signs confirmed. Memory storage, thought circuits, auxiliary motor functions, all confirmed to have been restarted. Entering reboot sequence.”

It was a few seconds before A2 opened her eyes. When they fell upon 2B, there was a moment of alarm before 2B quickly assured her,

“It’s okay, I’m not here to hurt you.” After being hunted by YoRHa units, she couldn’t blame A2 for having that as her instinctive reaction.

Memories slowly falling back into place, A2 relaxed again. “You’re alive,” she said with a small smile. Looking around the room for 9S, she soon saw him a few paces back. “You’re both alive.” Her relief was almost palpable.

“All three of us are alive,” 2B answered.

Unexpectedly, A2’s expression fell as she looked at her own hands. If 2B didn’t know any better, she would say that A2 looked… _disappointed._ In fact, there wasn’t a single other way she could think of to interpret A2’s expression.

“…A2?”

The sound of 2B’s voice brought her a bit out of her dark thoughts. “…Sorry, what?”

_Why do you look like you want to cry?_ It didn’t feel appropriate to voice that thought, yet she couldn’t shake the question on her mind: _Did A2 not want to come back?_ The thought hurt more than she would have anticipated, but she decided not to put her on the spot with such a personal question. “…I’m glad that you’re alive.”

A2 looked away and pushed herself up into a sitting position. She couldn’t quite meet 2B’s eyes. “How are we alive?”

Pod 042 recapped the feat, just as he had done for 2B. When he was finished, A2 nodded, seeming to have gathered her composure again.

She had thought she would be able to see her old friends again… but she had been given a second chance at life, and she knew it’s what No. 4 would have wanted for her. As such, she should accept it with gratitude. Another try at living in the beautiful world, now no longer being hunted by the YoRHa… and maybe even not being alone anymore, if she was reading this situation correctly. Maybe… things could feel more bearable again. After all… surely ‘reluctant survival’ wasn’t the life No. 4 had wanted her to live.

“So… what comes next for you two?” A2 asked. “All the machines in the area should have had their data on the ark, and your Commander is gone…” She wondered if that was too blunt. In all truth, she felt no sadness at the Commander’s passing. She still felt that the Commander was to blame for what happened to her squadron.

2B looked at 9S. “That’s right, are we still able to contact the Council of Humanity? Do we have any orders from them?”

A2 opened her mouth as though to say something, but hesitated as she remembered how devastating it was for her to learn the extent of how much Command had deceived them. Even so, 2B had a right to know, didn’t she?

9S grimaced, likely thinking similarly. “About that. 2B… No, we… I don’t think we’ll hear from the Council of Humanity anymore.”

2B looked at her pod. “Are we unable to establish a connection without the Bunker?”

“Negative: Signal from moon servers is weak but present.”

A2 couldn’t stand it; she had to tell her. If 2B was going to keep asking questions like that, it was only a matter of time until her pod told her, and… she would rather hear it from herself or 9S, who, unlike the pods, were capable of tact. “2B…” She waited until 2B was looking at her. “There are no humans on the moon. We don’t have to keep fighting… not if we don’t want to.”

Even with her eyes hidden behind the goggles, it was clear that 2B was shocked and dismayed to hear this. “Then what have we been fighting for?” Was it all for nothing? All the times she had had to kill 9S… all the executions she carried out, for that matter… if it wasn’t for the good of humanity, then why…?

Seeing 2B despair, A2 found herself reminded of her own self in the past. With that came the memory of how No. 4 used to reassure her when she was upset. Hoping it would work for 2B as well, she reached out and placed a hand on 2B’s arm.

2B seemed surprised, but as she placed her hand over A2’s, it could only be assumed that the contact was appreciated.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I know it must come as a shock.”

She shook her head, not because it wasn’t a shock but because A2 had nothing to apologize for. “I suppose that does give us different options moving forward,” she managed, a small tremor in her voice. She was glad she was still wearing the goggles, so that no one could see the tears in her eyes.

A thought occurred to A2 as she recalled the memory data she had received from 2B. Her voice still gentle, she reminded her, “You know, there’s… nobody now who will punish you for having emotions.” She was probably the last one to talk about not hiding one’s feelings these days, but at the same time, it was precisely for that reason that she knew how much it hurt and didn’t want 2B to feel she had to go through it.

After teaching herself to hold back for her entire lifetime, it wasn’t easy to just set that aside and let herself feel. Yet, the truth had always been that she was never as good at hiding her emotions as she had tried to be, and her words poured forth despite her reservations. “If not for humans, what has all of this been for?”

She agreed, honestly. Learning that humanity could never come back made reclaiming the Earth seem quite pointless. It was a positive thing for their future, because now they could decide for themselves whether to keep fighting or live peacefully, but it took away any meaning her past suffering might have had.

2B removed her goggles to look right into A2’s eyes. “There was no reason for… for any of it?” She hastily wiped away a tear.

Just as A2 started to wonder if she should have kept her mouth shut after all, 9S came and knelt down next to 2B. “Well, it led to you and me meeting, so it’s not all bad.” With a warm smile, he held her free hand in his.

She supposed he had a point. If not for the false quest to bring humanity back to its former glory, the three of them might not even exist. And… now they could carve out a new life for themselves. One that could make their past pain worth enduring. One where no one had to hurt each other, because there was no one to command them to do so anymore. That calmed her down.

_It led to you and me meeting, so it’s not all bad._ He said that even after enduring so much pain, A2 couldn’t help but to be struck by. Even after what he had been through – granted, she supposed he didn’t consciously remember the times he had been killed – he viewed it as worth it to have met 2B. Had she ever had someone who would feel that way about her?

(Was she _worth_ anyone feeling that way about her? A revenge-fueled deserter, whose weakness led to the death of her comrades?)

2B noticed a dark expression on A2’s face again, but in trying to piece together the reasons for it, she found herself unsure.

When he followed her gaze, though, 9S was pretty sure he understood the gist of it. As a Scanner model, his intuitive capabilities were quite high, after all. For his words to have made her look so wistful, he could only guess she felt lonely. That guess was supported by the fact that she was a deserter, and that he had only ever seen her working alone. Considering how he had treated her the last time he’d seen her, it wasn’t all that likely he could offer any form of meaningful comfort, so instead he said brightly, “I’m excited for the 3 of us to spend more time together!”

Even as A2 looked up at him in surprise, 2B smiled and agreed. “It’ll be nice.”

_Bittersweet_. It would be nice not to be alone anymore, and yet… should she even allow herself to have comrades after her past failures? Maybe getting close to them would only hurt them. “…I’m used to working alone,” she said, withdrawing her hand from 2B’s arm.

It was clear that 2B was confused by this at first. But as she thought about it, she wondered: Could A2 be like her? Afraid to get close to anybody? She didn’t really know much about A2’s experiences, but she could only assume based on A2’s lack of surprise that their encounter in the Forest Kingdom wasn’t the first time A2 had found herself faced with an E-type tasked with killing her. Who _would_ jump right to trusting another YoRHa soldier at that point, especially another E-type? Still… “You don’t have to trust us right away. I understand. But I hope you’ll give us a chance.”

_It’s not you I don’t trust. It’s myself._

Before A2 could decide how to respond, 9S added, “And… I owe you an apology.” While he was intuitive, he wasn’t a mind-reader – at least not without hacking someone. That combined with not knowing A2 very well led him to assume that some of her reluctance was due to how he had acted toward her after seeing her kill 2B. “I didn’t know 2B was infected so bad… Thank you for keeping 2B’s memories safe.”

That seemed to catch her slightly off guard, but it was appreciated nonetheless. “I don’t blame you. I would’ve done the same thing in your shoes, I’m sure.”

“Why didn’t you tell him what happened?” 2B asked, having not been conscious to know that it was so long before the two had a chance to talk.

Well, in theory that would have been a good idea, but in practice… “Hey 9S, you think you would’ve listened if I tried to tell you?”

He scratched the back of his neck, feeling sheepish. “Probably not.”

A2 looked back at 2B. “That’s what I figured. People aren’t thinking rationally when they’ve just lost someone important to them.”

2B looked at her quizzically, noting an odd weight to A2’s tone but unsure what to make of it. As it applied to this situation though, the words made sense. If 9S had been severely infected unbeknownst to her and she had walked in on A2 killing him, could she really say that she would sit and hear her out? She liked to think of herself as calm and rational, but she doubted she would be able to think of anything but grief.

Feeling vulnerable with the way the two were looking at her – both seeming to have noticed something in her voice, and 9S’s sorrowful look in particular making her feel far more seen through than she had wanted – A2 decided to change the subject. “How long have you two been awake?”

“I’ve been awake for 38 minutes,” 2B said, looking to 9S in expectation for his answer.

“About 41 minutes.” _And yes, those three minutes waiting for you to wake up were horrible!_

If they hadn’t been awake for very long, then that meant… they had thought of her shortly after waking up, and cared enough to come check on her and have her rebooted? That was actually rather touching.

The question had prompted 2B’s mind to shift to problem-solving. She hadn’t completely processed the new changes to their lives, but she recognized now a few of the things they would run into. Fortunately, they did happen to have someone with them who knew about survival outside of the Bunker. “Now that we don’t have the Bunker, we should set up a home base.”

A2 wondered if 2B meant the three of them living together. That was a little much for her this soon into their ‘partnership,’ which she still wasn’t even sold on. Still, she had to admit that the idea of having a consistent, safe place to sleep at night was rather appealing. Until now, she had generally been on the move. On top of that, the machines had been just about everywhere, so even if someplace had been safe one night, there was no guarantee it would be safe the next. Deciding to play it off casually, she shrugged. “I kinda like this place, so this’ll be mine. Want me to come with you to pick out one of your own?”

She didn’t say it directly, but the implication that A2 didn’t want to join them was clear. 2B supposed that wasn’t surprising though. She was used to living with practically everyone she knew, but A2 was probably used to being alone. Maybe she preferred it that way? No… after all her time pushing everyone away, 2B couldn’t believe that anyone would truly prefer to be _alone_. Sometimes, sure, but not all the time.

Truthfully, she wasn’t even sure she would use this as a ‘home base.’ Getting too attached to one place meant that she would end up hurt if something happened to it… not that that was terribly likely now with all the machines in the area gone, but there was no guarantee that they would _stay_ gone. There was also the fact that if she kept this as her home base, 2B and 9S would know where to find her when she was sleeping, so at her most vulnerable – but honestly, she did trust them. After seeing 2B’s memories, she felt she knew them well enough to know they didn’t mean her any harm.

“I would like that,” 2B finally answered. If A2 needed time to trust and warm up to them, then she would just do her best to show A2 that they were trustworthy and how much better it felt not to be alone.


End file.
